The weigh-in for the 99th annual Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest took place in New York on Thursday (3rd July).

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A Man dies in an eating contest over the Fourth of July weekend after he tried gulping down a large number of hot dogs. The incident happened Thursday in western South Dakota. 47-year-old Walter Eagle Tail of Custer died at the hospital after attempts were made to save him.

A July 8 report by ABC News indicates that Tail died from choking to death on the hot dogs.

Custer County Sheriff Rick Wheeler tells the Rapid City Journal that everything happened very fast. He says:

"There was someone doing CPR when we arrived. He probably just suffocated. It got lodged in his throat and they (paramedics) couldn't get it out.

"It all happened within minutes."

The pie eating contest for Friday was canceled by sponsor, Custer Chamber of Commerce. Chamber Executive Director Dave Ressler says this about after the man who died in the eating contest:

"We are at a loss for words. We are mourning for Walter and his family right now."

Friends describe Tail as being "a fun-loving, kind and caring man," according to the report. He was "just having fun" when he entered the hot dog contest.

It's not often you hear about a man who dies in an eating contest, but it's quite shocking that it doesn't seem to happen more often given the fact it's so hard on the human body. Consuming so much food at once is a health hazard on its own!

As Rapid City Journal went on to report, various websites have revealed others killed in eating contests. It reports that "a Romanian man choked to death during a sausage-eating contest in 2013 in that country, and in 2012, a Florida man choked to death after eating dozens of live cockroaches during a contest."

On Monday morning, a number of students at El Dorado High School in Placentia, California discovered a teacher dead. Jillian Jacobson who taught photography, was found hanging from the ceiling inside a classroom in what seems to be a suicide.